Getting out of the rut- Lessons from Test Automation Failure Stories

Link to event: https://meet.google.com/egj-zktq-scq

About the Talk:
One of the most important success factors for businesses is the shorter time to market. Test automation paves the way to achieve this as we notice a reduction in cycle times for testing. More and more businesses recognize the value of automation and you can see an increased impetus on test automation. This is also quite visible in the hiring trends for testers as well.
With this increasing demand for automation, what we encounter are failures

1. We see stakeholders and business leaders looking at the perceived benefits of automation because a top company has implemented automation in a certain way and has succeeded. It is assumed to work for every context.
2. Too much focus on low hanging fruits such as UI and there’s a constant attempt of reinventing the wheel in that space instead of looking beyond the UI.
3. Tools are chosen many times based on trends and not based on what might fit the purpose
4. Decisions are made on automation and conveyed to the teams to implement on the go.
5. Stakeholders remain oblivious to possible roadblocks and downsides and need to be educated.

That said, there are some fundamental questions that need to be answered
- Is Automation really needed in the given context?
- Will automation bring the perceived benefits
- Are we automating the right tests?
- Are we automating in the right layer?
- Do we have the right tools for our context and support the technology stack? Are we using a hammer for a screw?

This talk summarizes my personal experience in implementing automation across projects and failing at them. I will talk about my learnings from 3 such project experiences. I wish to plant seeds in the minds of the audience to think beyond the obvious and focus on getting it right.

About the Speaker:
Brijesh Deb is a Principal consultant at Infosys and the Chief Enablement Officer at The Test Chat Community. He has over 2 decades of experience of leading, managing and coaching teams on Software Testing and embracing the Agile mindset. Being a hands-on software tester has also helped him stay close to technology and understand the intricacies. He has been involved in testing a wide range of applications - lightweight mobile apps to the large scale industrial IoT solutions. He works with some of the top tech companies providing everyday solutions in a variety of sectors such as the Steel manufacturing, Automotive, Avionics, Semiconductor, Space, Agriculture, Material sciences and Energy sector to name a few.
Brijesh is an Agile Transformation Agent with the objective of helping organisations achieve customer excellence with a focus on delivering maximum value to customers, stakeholders and teams.
He lives in the Netherlands. When he’s not testing or thinking about it, he loves singing nursery rhymes with his son. He’s a wordsmith and loves to write on social media, especially LinkedIn. He has a passion for anthropology and loves to study human behaviour.